Microsoft canceled the game that the former head of The Elder Scrolls Online had waited for his entire career. Now he speaks for the first time about his departure.
Who is it about? Matt Firor is an American game developer who worked at ZeniMax Online Studios for 18 years. There, he served as the Game Director of The Elder Scrolls Online and as Studio Director.
In the summer of 2025, Firor left ZeniMax. His successor as studio head was to be Jo Burba. Firor did not specify an exact reason for his departure at the time, but Microsoft – after acquiring Bethesda and ZeniMax, the parent company of the developer studio – announced the layoff of 9,000 employees on the same day.
Microsoft canceled the game that he had waited for his entire career
What exactly does he say? At the start of the new year, Firor addressed his followers on LinkedIn. In a post, he addresses the second most frequently asked question, according to him: What led to his departure from ZeniMax Online Studios?
Firor says that it is the “most obvious explanation.” As part of the massive layoffs at Microsoft in the summer of 2025, ZeniMax Online’s new MMORPG was also canceled: Project Blackbird. It was intended to be a mix of Destiny and Blade Runner. For Firor, a special project:
“Project Blackbird was the game that I had waited my entire career to develop, and when it was canceled, I resigned. My thoughts and heart are still with the affected team members, many of whom I had worked with for over 20 years and who were all among the most dedicated and talented developers in the industry.”
Project Blackbird had been in development for 7 years when it was canceled in the summer of 2025 and received very positive feedback from early testers. Even Xbox head Phil Spencer was reportedly a fan, according to well-known industry insider Jason Schreier. It was said that they even had to wrest the controller from him to proceed with a meeting (via Bloomberg).
MMORPG was supposed to be a mix of Destiny and Blade Runner
What was this game supposed to be? Many details are not known, but according to consistent reports, Project Blackbird was to be an online loot shooter in the third-person perspective, increasingly compared to Bungie’s Destiny.
A major focus of the game was to be on vertical movement, and players would have been able to run up walls like superheroes and swing around large buildings Spider-Man style with grappling hooks. Furthermore, Blackbird was supposed to feature a “SciFi-Noir” style reminiscent of movies like Blade Runner.
The end of Project Blackbird also contributed to 2025 being remembered as a catastrophic year for our MMORPG expert Karsten Scholz in the history of the genre. You can read the full report here on MeinMMO: 2025 is remembered as one of the worst years for MMORPG fans in history
